During a regular meeting held by the Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education (BoE) on Wednesday, Feb. 4, the BoE heard a capital improvements update from Chief Operations Officer Jason Taylor.
Taylor reviewed completed and in-progress projects while highlighting a few particular projects.
According to Taylor’s presentation, the total cost of 48 active and completed projects is listed at $744,703, which does not include costs for an asbestos management plan.
Taylor noted that he did not include a dollar amount for the asbestos management plan because it is “gonna be a very, very pricey one” that may end up being its own sub-capital improvement project.
Taylor explained he would not be diving into that project this year as a lot will depend on the ASD’s plans to build a new campus for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and it potentially leaving the existing middle and elementary school campuses.
Taylor also discussed a water main break that occurred on the elementary school campus, prefacing the conversation as this type of issue being an important reason to look at building a new school.
He explained that water was bubbling up out of the ground near the southwest corner of the building, creating a mini “glacier” across the pavement.
Contractors were able to locate the broken line and repair the break within two days, costing the district $12,000, Taylor explained.
He noted that the break occurred where a previous repair was done “many years ago,” noting that repair had failed and had probably been leaking for a while, then finally gave way.
“This is a perfect example of aging infrastructure,” Taylor said, explaining this issue is not something that can be seen from the outside.
He noted there are cosmetic repairs such as repainting stuff that would make the buildings look better, “but there are things going on inside the walls and there’s things going on underneath the pavement that you can not see until something goes bad.”
Taylor explained that when the district’s elementary and middle school buildings were built, they were built under old building codes and used “very different” materials.
“Lots of corrosives,” he added.
Taylor went on to state that issues such as this, he believes, are “gonna happen with increasing frequency.”
Taylor also described the situation as a “cautionary tale” he shares when asked about why the district needs a new building.
He noted that the repair for the water main break took a “big chunk of money” that could have been used on something else within the district.
Taylor posed the question to the BoE of how many other places like this there might be around the district’s other buildings, noting there’s “all kinds of problems” underneath that ASD will have to spend money on.
Taylor writes in his update that, as the district goes into its bond campaign for a new school, “this is the kind of repair that I want everyone to be aware of.”
He adds, “With an aging infrastructure, these are the kinds of breaks that we will have to expect with increasing frequency and will lead to tens of thousands of dollars worth of repairs. It is important that our community know that our reasoning for building a new school is not necessarily the parts of the school that can be seen (walls can be repainted, doors can be replaced, etc.). The biggest concern for me are the things that you can’t see; like plumbing in the walls or water lines in the ground.”
Other capital improvement projects highlighted by Taylor include a sprinkler head replacement project at the high school, noting the sprinkler heads were recalled in 2002 but that government money to replace them ran out in 2007.
“We’re gonna get this taken care of,” he said, explaining the district is currently in the bid process and the project will be completed over the summer.
Taylor also mentioned estimated costs for “fume hood” repairs that initially came in at $20,000 each for the elementary school and middle school, explaining that, when revisited, they actually came in at $50,000 for one and $80,000 for the other.
Taylor explained that the fire department agreed to let the district hold off on those repairs until it knows if it will continue to occupy the buildings after its upcoming bond election.
BoE president Bob Lynch asked if the fume head problem is a current safety issue, with Taylor explaining that with the way the fume heads were designed, they could potentially give off a toxic fume, but that gas lines were disconnected in the elementary and middle schools so that no cooking takes place there now.
He noted that food is cooked at the high school and then only “warmed” at the elementary and middle schools.
Taylor also explained that the district got “passage” from the state to not have to replace the fume hoods, but that the local fire department wants them replaced as the fume hoods are not up to code.
Another project Taylor highlighted for the BoE is the back field irrigation system at the elementary school.
“This is a project that I desperately want to engage in because last summer we were putting in [$15,000 to $20,000] a month on that field,” he said.
Taylor explained that no cost was entered for this project because he doesn’t feel it is a responsible thing to dive in at this point with the district unsure of how the space will be used in the future.
He indicated that it would likely take hundreds of thousands of dollars to redo the irrigation system.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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